This Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary houses the various Icons and Statues donated by faithful parishioners from different countries. The idea of transforming this room, which used to be a store room, into a Shrine is to highlight the multicultural face of St. Therese Parish and to give expression to their strong devotion to the Blessed Mother and to their faith in God.

Some of these icons and statues have been with the families for almost a hundred years; some accompanying them in refugee camps, some travelling with them in different countries looking for a better future, and others as companions during their most difficult times in settling here in Australia as young families and new immigrants.

This Shrine also houses the relic of Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini, the Founder of the Scalabrinian Missionaries. As a young priest, Father Scalabrini, asked his Bishop to be sent as a missionary abroad but his bishop did not allow him. He eventually became a bishop at a very young age but he always treasured in his heart the desire to be a missionary, so that on 28 November 1887 he founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of St. Charles now known as the Scalabrinian Fathers and Brothers, the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo on 25 October 1895 to minister to migrants, seafarers, refugees and displaced persons. Bishop Scalabrini died on 1 June 1905 and when his body was exhumed for the occasion of his beatification in 1997, his body was still intact but his right foot got detached. The relic is a part of Blessed Scalabrini’s foot. Although his dream of becoming a missionary was not fulfilled during his lifetime, after his death he still became a missionary with his relic travelling to different countries and continents where his spiritual sons and daughters are ministering.


This Shrine was blessed by Rev Fr. Roger Cortuna Manalo, C.S. and officially opened for public veneration on the 12th of July 2015 with the parish youth group “YA!” (Youth Alive!)who consecrated themselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary.